France may allow assisted suicide

An article published Wednesday in the Connexion, France’s English newspaper, states that “Assisted Suicide may be allowed in France.”

The article concerns the report from the Comité Consultatif National d’Ethique in France that examined the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide and concluded that assisted suicide may be legalized but stated that euthanasia is:

“a radical medical gesture” that crossed “a forbidden barrier” – and was both impractical and immoral

[Prof Didier Sicard] “severely criticised current medical care of terminally-ill patients in France and called for the development of better palliative care regimes,” and [the report] “emphasized the moral use of palliative sedation rather than euthanasia or assisted suicide.”

Euthanasia is when someone directly and intentionally causes the death of another person, usually by lethal injection, and it is considered a form of homicide.

Assisted suicide is when someone is directly and intentionally involved with causing the death of another person, usually by lethal dose. Assisted suicide is to aid, encourage or counsel suicide.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide both involve giving the right to one group of people to directly and intentionally cause the death or be involved with causing the death of another person.

Society should never give one human being the right in law to cause the death of another human being. The act cannot be safe and it will be abused, it cannot be effectively controlled and it cannot be separated from the attitude of the person who is causing or involved with causing the death of the other, such as negative attitudes towards people with disabilities or those with Alzheimer’s or chronic disabling conditions.

Further to that, legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide gives the power over life and death to physicians. This is a power that should never be exercised by one person over another person.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) calls on all people of good will to strongly protest and to oppose any attempt to give others the right to cause death by euthanasia or assisted suicide.

The article stated that:

“the Comité Consultatif National d’Ethique would be asked to look at the report and advise on putting it into practice with a view to a law before parliament in June 2013.”